India's first children's lit fest 'Bookaroo' to debut in Gangtok

Kolkata: With as many as 21 speakers, 59 sessions including storytelling, drama, workshops, art and craft, Bookaroo - India's first children's literature festival that has travelled to 12 cities across the country - is set to debut in Gangtok, Sikkim on June 28.

The festival, which began in November 2008 in New Delhi, has completed 32 editions. The two-day event will be held in Taktse International School in Gangtok.

The event provides an opportunity for four to 14-years-old to come and interact with the author Reshma Thapa Gurung who wrote "The Very Wiggly Tooth". Children will also get a chance to meet Chennai based storyteller Bhagirathy and others.

The US-based author Shruthi Rao will hold a session on 20 Indians who changed the world at the festival, apart from storytelling and writing workshops.

Award-winning illustrator Priya Kuriyan will hold art workshops on monsters, jungles and egg children to imagine what they would do if they had superpowers.

Storyteller Deeptha Vivekanand, transmedia artiste Kavita Singh Kale, poet Simrin Tamhane are some of the names in the list of speakers from across the country.

"In 2019-20, apart from taking Bookaroo to Sikkim, we will travel to six other cities, most of which are new ones. Delhi and Srinagar will be repeats from last year. We are additionally planning an Urdu festival in Srinagar this year in the month of September. The festival will also visit Varanasi and Baroda for the first time this year," Swati Roy, festival director of Bookaroo, said.

The entry for festival Bookaroo is free and open to all.

North East Regional Centre, Guwahati, of Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) collaborated with the Bookaroo Trust to fulfil this objective through the festival of children's literature. Also, Taktse International School that had religiously taken their children to the fest in Delhi is providing its full support.